Tuesday, October 06, 2009

WTS: 1 Ardy Soul

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’ve never played a Blizzard or Bioware game. I’ve watched my brother play countless hours of Mass Effect, KOTOR and KOTOR II. He plays WoW. In fact most people I know online either have played WoW, are playing WoW or will at some point.

As far as my gaming calendar goes, there’s City of Heroes next weekend to such a degree I’ll probably be sick of it next monday. There’s Left 4 Dead and if I get the money, a pre-order of Left 4 Dead 2. I’d love to dabble in Aion and have every intention of getting Shannon to test Champions Online just for my own grim amusement.

However Christmas is coming and with it, holidays. I’ll have time to indulge various bits and David (the brother) does keep offering me World of Warcraft. So question to everyone.

Is the never ending draw of Warcraft based in how it is as an MMO or due to fond memories of Warcraft I-III being translated to the big screen as it were? I understand some of the lore but none of the draw. Am I too changed by the games I have played to enjoy WoW or will it be me selling my soul?

7 comments:

Well, I played WoW after never having played any of the Warcraft games, so I can't tell you if there was any pull there... Personally, I... didn't not enjoy playing it, but it never really held my interest for long enough periods to actually become a game I played beyond the free month. I wish I could say more, but most of the game other than the fact that I played an undead Warlock (and this before I started reading LFG!) and blew stuff up has slipped my mind for the moment.

It really is a grey PvE game, and despite all the shit thrown at it, it's probably he best game I've ever played. That said, the player base is utter crap on almost every server, which ruins a lot of the experience.

My suggestion would be to find a guild first, then take someone's buddy pass trial key and give it a whirl. The only thing you'd lose then is some time out of your day if it doesn't suit you.

I would also say wait for cataclysm. The old world is very dated at this point.

For me, the draw has been my friends in game and originally it was a love of the Warcraft RTS games. I've lost touch with the lore because they did WAY too much with it in WoW and refused to advance the story until very recently. Originally, the story was suppose to bridge WC3 and WC4... but not so sure we'll ever see 4 at this point lol

+1 vote for doing the trial key/Recruit-A-Friend. I'm trying it out for a bit after disliking the initial "vanilla" and I'm enjoying myself so far. We'll see if it keeps my attention after I hit level cap.

Probably worth doing a trial account, just to see. I enjoyed it enough to play for years until the shitty ass end-game burned me out.

Then again, I wasn't playing alone, so that probably helped keep me interested during the dry boring spells between the gems of stunningly good quests. There are a couple early, then the quality is meh for a lot of the midgame, and then as you got closer to 60, some of the things you did early started bearing fruit, and there were some other, awesome standalones that really made it worthwhile.

And I'd say, if you're going to play with folks, now's the time to start. You'll want to at least experience some of the old world before Cataclysm destroys it all.

I really think Cataclysm will be the end of truely new players coming to WOW. At that point, they'll have no idea what's going on, and no way to catch up, since everything leading up to that point will have been obliterated. I'm not even sure how the connections to the other two expansions will remain in place. They'll have to significantly alter the reasons you're character is going to Outland before Northrend, so we'll just have to see.

Still, worth a try. Been thinking of dusting it off again myself and logging in my Death Knight.